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CHENNAI: Ministry of Urban Development will market treated faecal sludge as open compost to farmers within a 50 km radius of sewage treatment plants.

Addressing reporters here after the inauguration of 4th Faecal Sludge Management Conference here, Praveen Prakash, the joint secretary and mission director of Swachh Bharat Mission under Ministry of Urban Development, said the government has brought in changes to Fertilizer Control Order to sell open compost.

“Usually, only bagged compost was to be sold under the Fertilizer Control Order.

Now, it will be sold loose. It will be bought by Centre at a cost of `1,500 per tonne and marketed to farmers,” said Prakash. He said it has been made mandatory on part of the power plants within a 100 km radius of sewage treatment plant to use treated water of faecal sludge for operations.

He also said a national policy on faecal sludge and septage management will be released in the first week of March.

The thrust of the policy is to ensure minimum standards of sanitation for all, public health and water resource protection as primary goals, with environmental protection and a nuisance-free living space. Resource recovery from waste is a secondary goal.